What You DON’T See When You Look at Bitcoin

Let me show you something.

In just a moment, I’m going to ask you to look around the room you’re in, for about 10 seconds, to identify and remember as many objects as possible that are red. If something is partly red, that counts too. Just keep a running list in your mind. Make sense? Okay, ready? Go.

Okay how was that – good? Easy? How many red objects did you see? Depending on the room you’re in, maybe you got 5, 10, or even 20. Great.

Now, the tricky part: Keep your eyes on the page, and try to remember how many blue objects you saw. Think carefully. Any? How about yellow? Green? Any other color?

If you know the room really well, you can remember certain-colored objects from a long time ago, but if you’re like most people, you pretty much draw a blank.

Why?

Because humans are deletionist creatures. We “delete” from working memory anything that isn’t connected to our immediate goals. If, for some reason, noticing red objects is important to us, we’ll notice them, but at the cost of not noticing all the non-red objects.

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What does this have to do with Bitcoin? I’m glad you asked.

If you’re a middle-class millennial living in the first world, and you have a nice-enough home and a steady job, you might be looking for a safe way to grow your savings without taking on huge risk. When you look at Bitcoin, you see the massive price volatility, and you (understandably) move on. That’s too risky, you think, noticing the big red flag.

But what aren’t you seeing? The blues, the greens, all the colors of the rainbow…

• If you’re a poor worker living in the third world, you might be experiencing the worst hyperinflation of your life. If you live in Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, or many others, you struggle to buy food because prices double by the time you make it from work to the grocery store. You’re desperately looking for an alternative to your government’s fiat currency. Bitcoin, which stores its value because it can’t be printed out of thin air, is your salvation.

• If you’re a Muslin woman living in the Middle East, you might be experiencing a form of gender oppression akin to modern slavery. You may be forbidden from owning a bank account, and any cash you bring into the home may be taken by your father or your husband. You’re looking for a way to gain financial freedom from your familial oppressors. Bitcoin, which is usable by anyone because it does not recognize race, religion, country, or gender, is your salvation.

• If you’re a resident of Cyprus who saw your bank account robbed by your own government, you’re looking for a digital account that can’t be controlled by anyone other than you. Bitcoin, which has no central governance, no special permissions, and no bail-out or bail-in capabilities, is your salvation.

• If you’re a loving son of a sickly mother living in the UK, you may be interested in procuring life-saving (or, at least, pain-alleviating) drugs that your government deems illegal. You’re looking for a way to acquire these drugs without using the highly-monitored and censored legacy banking system. Bitcoin, which cannot be frozen, censored, or reversed – and which can be used pseudonymously – is your salvation.

• If you’re a student of social history living in the US, you might have noticed the suspicious coincidence that many of society’s ills – from falling education outcomes to rising healthcare costs, from increased crime to widening income inequality – seem to have originated around August 15, 1971, the day the US officially abandoned the gold standard. You’re looking for a form of sound money that can’t be abused by governments the way the gold standard has repeatedly been abused. Bitcoin, which is easily auditable and verifiable by everyone in the world, is your salvation.

• If you’re anything like me – if you’re an optimistic visionary living on this beautiful planet called earth, you’re looking for the next technology that will empower billions of people to lift themselves out of poverty and live meaningful, joyful, and productive lives. You recognize that poverty is caused by (1) no way to earn money and (2) no way to save money. Bitcoin, which allows anyone to receive money peer-to-peer from around the world and save that money indefinitely, is the signal amidst the noise.

I hope you found these other perspectives valuable. Thanks for reading.

P.S. If you are a middle-class millennial living in the first world, and you have a nice-enough home and a steady job, and you are looking for a safe way to grow your savings without taking on huge risk… well… I sincerely hope you find what you’re looking for.

Thanks again.